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April 5, 2007 - PRESS RELEASE
To benefit the restricted endowment for the purchase of works of art, the deaccessioning initiative will ensure the future of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery for generations to come, fortify its role as a key cultural institution in the region, and strengthen its ability to be a world-class institution of modern and contemporary art. Works of art outside of the museum’s core mission, as expressed in the Strategic Plan of 2001 (Executive Summary available online), are to be deaccessioned through Sotheby’s in New York in a series of auctions through spring 2007.
For further information about the deaccessioning initiative, see Frequently Asked Questions.
In Sotheby’s March 20, 2007 sale of Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, twenty-four objects from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery earned more than $18,000,000.
"While it’s never easy to let go of any part of a collection, this was a very successful beginning to ensuring the future of the Gallery for generations to come,” said Gallery Director Louis Grachos. “We’ve just taken a huge step toward permanently increasing our fund for acquiring new artworks. We are glad to know that the future just got brighter for our institution and for the arts in Buffalo."
The top selling lot was a Chinese Bronze Age wine vessel from the late Shang Dynasty (thirteenth – eleventh century B.C.), which sold for $8,104,000 – well above the presale high estimate of $3 million. The buyer was London dealer Roger Keverne, who was bidding on behalf of Compton Verney, a three-year-old museum near Stratford-upon-Avon, England, founded by British businessman and art collector Peter Moores.
Sotheby's March 23, 2007 sale of Indian and Southeast Asian works of art from the Gallery earned more than $7,018,000. A granite carving of Shiva as Brahma dating from the Chola Period (tenth century) sold for $4,072,000 to the Cleveland Museum of Art and was a record for Indian stone sculpture at auction. Director Louis Grachos commented, “We are extremely pleased that the South Indian granite figure of Shiva as Brahma will join the outstanding permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art – one of the leading encyclopedic museums in this country – where it will be on view to a broad public audience. This piece will be a significant addition to the Cleveland Museum's comprehensive holdings of nearly 4,000 works of Asian art, making it possible for the work to be seen in context and alongside other major pieces of art from the same period.”
This, combined with the proceeds of the March 20, 2007 sale, comes to a total of $25,376,000 (including the buyer's premium). The funds raised will be added to the Gallery’s restricted endowment for the purchase of works of art.
Forthcoming Auctions
All auctions are held at Sotheby’s, 1334 York Avenue, New York, New York, 10021.
212.606.7000 Telephone
www.sothebys.com
April 5, 2007
A Celebration of the English Country House
(Chinese export porcelain)
May 17, 2007
African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art
May 18, 2007
American Indian Art
May 22, 2007
Old Master Paintings and European Works of Art
June 7 and 8, 2007
Antiquities